
Michiel van Groesen
Professor Maritime History
- Name
- Prof.dr. M. van Groesen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2765
- m.van.groesen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-6421-6033
The chair in Maritime History is established at Leiden’s Institute for History since 1978. In close cooperation with maritime heritage institutions in the Netherlands, most importantly Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam and the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, scholars in Leiden challenge students to ask new questions and find new answers for global and local developments in maritime history. For more information about the MA-programme in Maritime History, click here.

Research
My interest in maritime history is embedded in the culture of the early modern Dutch Republic and the Atlantic world. Broadly speaking my research is interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on the culture of imperial expansion and the politics of global interactions. My current book project, provisionally entitled An Ocean of Rumours: News and Information in the Atlantic World, explores the circulation of transoceanic news, focusing on the tension between distance and credibility in the early modern world. The book is under contract with Cambridge University Press.
In prior research I examined early modern printed travel accounts, more specifically the monumental De Bry collection of voyages that disseminated very influential textual and visual images of the non-European world. I argued that the De Brys manipulated the original accounts for a confessionally divided readership. The German editions were aimed at a Protestant audience, the Latin translations were sold in Catholic Europe. Both versions - despite their differences - helped to legitimate European colonialism in the next two centuries.
Since then I have worked on the rise and fall of Dutch Brazil as seen through the eyes of the Amsterdam print media. In 2014 I edited a volume of essays entitled The Legacy of Dutch Brazil (Cambridge), which discusses the impact the short-lived colony had on the Atlantic world from the seventeenth century until today. My second book, Amsterdam's Atlantic, came out with Penn Press in 2017. Using newspapers, prints, maps, paintings, pamphlets, and diaries, I demonstrate that Dutch Brazil transformed (and was transformed by) the early modern media landscape at home, and marked the emergence of a 'public' Atlantic world.
Curriculum vitae
2019 Visiting Fellow, Princeton University
2014 - 2019 NWO-Vidi Research Fellow
2013 Queen Wilhelmina Visiting Professor, Columbia University in New York
2011 Honorary Research Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London
2008 - 2015 Assistant/Associate Professor of Early Modern History, University of Amsterdam
2008 - 2012 NWO-Veni Research Fellow
Key Publications



Professor Maritime History
- Faculty of Humanities
- Institute for History
- Nederlandse geschiedenis
- Groesen M. van (2022), The Anglo-Dutch lake? Johannes de Laet and the ideological origins of the Dutch and English West Indies, International Journal of Maritime History 34(4): 561-575.
- Groesen M. van (2022), Arguin: een vergeten kolonie van Nederland, Kijk : populair wetenschappelijk maandblad 2022(2).
- Groesen M. van, Ommen K. van, Richard A.I., Schrikker A.F., Storms M. & Verhoeven G. (2022), Kaarten die geschiedenis schreven: 1000 jaar wereldgeschiedenis in 100 oude kaarten. Tielt: Lannoo.
- Groesen M. van, Ommen K. van, Richard A.I., Schrikker A.F., Storms M. & Verhoeven G. (2022), Maps that made history: 1000 Years of World History in 100 Old Maps. Tielt: Lannoo.
- Groesen M. van (2021), "Wereldhandel". In: Helmers H.J., Janssen G.H. & Noorman J. (Eds.) De zeventiende eeuw. Leiden: Leiden University Press.
- Groesen M. van (2020), De zeemens te boek gesteld, of: Over Marinus en Polylector. In: Anrooij W. van, Dlabacova A., Geleijns E., Schaeps J., Warnar G. & Zanen S. van (Eds.), Om het boek: Cultuurhistorische bespiegelingen over boeken en mensen. Hilversum: Verloren. 78-83.
- Groesen M. van (2020), De wereld op zee: De maritieme cultuur van de Gouden Eeuw. In: Heijer H.J. den (Ed.), Nieuwe Maritieme Geschiedenis van Nederland no. 2.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Abraham Willaerts: marine painter in Dutch Brazil and the Atlantic world, Oud Holland 132(2-3): 65-78.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Beyond law and order: encounters at Arguin and the beginnings of the Dutch slave trade, 1633-1634. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 144-163.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Imagining the Americas in Print: Books, Maps, and Encounters in the Atlantic World. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Patagonian giants in West Africa?: Two versions of the first Dutch attempt to circumnavigate the world. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 32-52.
- Groesen M. van (2019), The Atlantic world in paperback: Amsterdam publisher Jan ten Hoorn and his catalogue of popular Americana. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 205-230.
- Groesen M. van (2019), The printed book in the Dutch Atlantic world. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 164-180.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Dierick Ruiters's Manuscript Maps and the Birth of the Dutch Atlantic, Imago Mundi 71(1): 34-50.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Una finestre sul mondo: I mezzi d’informazione di Amsterdam e le cronache della guerra nelle Americhe, Rivista storica Italiana 130(3): 1012-1040.
- Baakman E.J. & Groesen M. van (2019), Kranten in de Gouden Eeuw. In: Wijfjes H. & Harbers F. (Eds.), De krant. Een cultuurgeschiedenis. Amsterdam: Boom. 21-45.
- Groesen M. van (2018), Dierick Ruiters's Manuscript Maps and the Birth of the Dutch Atlantic, Imago Mundi 71(1): 34-50.
- Groesen M. van (2018), Global trade. In: Helmers H.J. & Janssen G.H. (Eds.), Cambridge Companion to the Dutch Golden Age. Cambridge Companions to Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 166-185.
- Groesen M. van (2018), Dutch Brazil, Oxford Bibliographies. Classics : .
- Groesen M. van (2017), Review of: Schmidt Dorothee, Reisen in das Orientalische Indien. Wissen über fremde Welten um 1600. Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences 108(4): 895-96.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Review of: Schilder Günter (2017), Early Dutch Maritime Cartography: The North Holland School of Cartography (c. 1580- c. 1620). Leiden & Boston: Brill. International Journal of Maritime History 29(4): 973-75.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Visualizing the News: The Amsterdam Spin-Doctor Claes Jansz Visscher and the West India Company. In: Beck L. & Ionescu C. (Eds.), Visualizing the Text: From Manuscript Culture to the Age of Caricature. Newark: University of Delaware Press. 95-116.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Groesen M. van (Ed.) (2017), Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age.
- Groesen M. van (Ed.) (2017), Maps, Spaces, Cultures.
- Groesen M. van (Ed.) (2017), Renaissance Studies.
- Groesen M. van & Fatah-Black K.J. (Eds.) (2017), Zeven Provinciën Reeks. Zeven Provinciën Reeks: Uitgeverij Verloren.
- Groesen M. van (4 November 2016), Varen en vertellen en varen en verbeelden. Interviewed by . [interview].
- Groesen M. van (26 October 2016), Één van de grootste nederlagen ooit: Hoogleraar zeegeschiedenis Michiel van Groesen schrijft boek over Nederlands Brazilië. for Leidsch Dagblad. [interview].
- Groesen M. van (30 September 2016). Een zee van mensen. Institute for History, Humanities, Leiden. Leiden. [inaugural address].
- Groesen M. van (2015), (Sem) Notícias do Front Ocidental: O Brasil Neerlandês, O Mundo Atlântico e Os Jornais Impressos dos Paíxes Baixos, MIOLO Revista do Instituto Arqueológico, Histórico e Geográf ico Pernambucano 2015(68): 13-48.
- Groesen M. van (2016), Review of: Berry Stephen R., A Path in the Mighty Waters: Shipboard Life & Atlantic Crossings to the New World. Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 35(1): 128-30.
- Groesen M. van (2016), Review of: Sutton Elizabeth, Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age. Imago Mundi 68(2): 249-250.
- Groesen M. van & Helmers H.J. (Eds.) (2016), Managing the News in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800 [special issue Media History 22-3/4]: Taylor and Francis.
- Groesen M. van & Helmers H.J. (2016), Managing the News in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1800, Media History 22(3-4): 261-266.
- Groesen M. van (2016), Met het gezicht naar de zee: een interview met hoogleraar zeegeschiedenis Michiel van Groesen. for Holland: historisch tijdschrift: 174-178. [interview].
- Groesen M. van (2016), Reading Newspapers in the Dutch Golden Age, Media History 22(3-4): 334-352.
- Groesen M. van (2015), Digital Gatekeeper of the Past: Delpher and the Emergence of the Press in the Dutch Golden Age, Tijdschrift voor Tijdschriftstudies 38: 9-19.
- Groesen M. van (2015), Arnoldus Montanus, Dutch Brazil, and the Re-Emergence of Cannibalism. In: Friedrich S., Brendecke A. & Ehrenpreis S. (Eds.), Transformations of Knowledge in Dutch Expansion. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. 93-120.
No relevant ancillary activities